Two

The Depths: Part 4

As soon as you heard the splash, you could feel yourself submerged in the cold water. Not a moment later, you swam to the surface, feeling slightly panicked as you splashed around.

"LUIGI!" Mario called. 

You quickly turned towards the sound of his voice, seeing him floating on a small crate. You quickly swam over, hopping on as well and shaking the disgusting water off of yourself.

You didn't completely get ejected out of the boat, which was your first fear, so that was good. However, you were in what looked to be a flooded basement, just like the one you dreamed about. Great. 

You coughed a few times to get the water out of your throat while Mario patted your back.

The ceilings leaked and spilled more and more murky water out into the lake of liquid you seemed to fall into. You didn't want to think about where that water came from.

You immediately felt a sense of dread and did not want to get back in the water, fearing that something was looming below, waiting to grab your ankle and drag you down. 

"Well, looks like we're swimming," Mario breathed, taking his red baseball cap off and looping the end through one of his belt loops. You did the same with your green cap. 

You weren't as pleased with the current situation as Mario seemed. You never were all that afraid of the water, but seeing as you just had a nightmare about this very situation... you weren't thrilled with having to swim through this.

"Well, since I jumped down the mysterious vent first, I think it's only fair that you-"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it," You muttered, rolling your eyes as Mario smirked and crossed his arms, quite literally waiting for you to test the waters.

You hated the situation you were in, but the fact that Mario was there to make fun of you made it a little more bearable.

You slowly and carefully kneeled down, then lowered yourself not the water, treading for a moment as you got your bearings. There was a wall to the left, so the only direction you could head was right. The water was colder than comfortable. You also didn't like how sticky and smelly it was and could only imagine what was in it to make it that way. 

About ten seconds later, you heard Mario shout "CANNONBALL!" And dive in like an Olympic swimmer. He resurfaced about a second later right next to you, patting you on the back and smiling. 

You rolled your eyes at him and asked, "Are you actually having fun?!"

"Uh, yeah!" Mario smirked, raising his eyebrows. "What's wrong with making the most of our situation? Just don't think of it as a creepy basement sewer and think of it as a fun pool party in the dark!"

"I hope you can hear how ridiculous you sound," You lightly laughed. 

Mario did have a point though. The two of you did have this habit of trying to find the fun in even the direst of situations. You probably would have been splashing around and having a great time as well if you weren't so afraid.

The two of you swam forward when you finally felt the ground. The water got shallower and shallower until you came up to a small ledge. Since it was too tall to get up to on your own, Mario boosted you. Once you were up, you turned around and reached down to him, helping hoist him up as well. Once the two of you were out, you looked forward, seeing a wall with a small crack in it.

"Welp, onward we ride!" Mario sang, grabbing your hand and leading the way, pulling his lighter out and flicking it on. "Yes! It still works!" He chimed after seeing the flame, clearly worried that the water wrecked it somehow. "Maybe you should test yours, Weegie."